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Hello, good morning, everyone. This is Playbooks Managing Editor and author Jack Blanchard.

It is Thursday, May the 1st. That is May Day, where I come from. Zach Stanton, is it Mayday in America?

Is that a thing here? It's not a thing to the same degree as in Europe, I think, but certainly among certain lefty types and union activists, it's a big thing within those crowds, but definitely not to the same degree as in Europe. I would be deeply heard if anyone accuse me of being a lefty type or a union activist. But in Britain, people dance around a maypole with all these coloured streamers. Have ever seen that? It's kind of weird. I've seen it. It feels a little like midsummery to make yes. Yeah, it's kind of creepy to be honest. Anyway, as you can hear, listeners, I'm here with Playbook's deputy editor, Zach Stanton today. And tell us where you are, Zach, because that's quite interesting in itself. I'm here in McComb County, Michigan, which is where Donald Trump held his 100-day rally on Tuesday.

It was a place he chose for its political salience.

It's historically the home of the Reagan Democrats.

I attended the rally to report on it, and I've remained here where I grew up.

It's not just the home of the Reagan Democrats, but the Stanton's of Michigan as well.

Okay, well, we'll talk about that in a sec.

What's driving the day, listeners, is essentially it's the economy, stupid.

Again, on the back of yesterday's surprisingly bleak-looking GDP figures for the first quarter of 2025.

We've got the Vice President, J.D. Vance, jetting off today to make a

speech about US manufacturing. He'll be speaking at a steel plant in South Carolina, and he'll be

taking Fox News along for the ride. Why not? They will be doing a sit-down interview with him there,

and he'll be keen to talk about how, I think, how Donald Trump's tariffs are going to create a

renaissance in US.S. manufacturing,

which some people will be delighted by and some people will be skeptical about.

The president himself will be facing more questions on the economy today, of course,

as well as other things.

He's participating in a National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House Rose Garden this morning.

He'll be speaking also at the University of Alabama later tonight. And I dare say he might be popping up at other places as well because he

seems to do about six different media appearances a day, much to my journalistic delight. Let's talk

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